When I started reading Juxtapoz, I began to follow the Vinyl Art Toy scene. Artists create their own toy molds, release them in limited runs, and charge exorbitant prices for them. It gets meta when the artists get their artist friends to produce alternate "colorways", variations on the decoration scheme of the mold.
The reason that I've become interested in Vinyl Toys is because I don't understand them. I don't completely understand how they are made. I'm still getting my head around how people can spend hundreds of dollars on them.They are slick looking characters, like those found in comics. Unlike comics, though, they don't serve any type of purpose, but to look good. They rarely have any type of backstory beyond a small blurb that the artist uses as a jumping on point to create the piece.
The toys I am most interested are the Lucha Libre figures from MuttPop. They have a little bit of a back story, but mostly they just look awesome. Thanks to the Internet, you can enjoy them without dropping your hard earned cheddar. Via Vinyl Pulse, here is a great flickr set from the recent MuttPop show at Delkographik in France.
1 comment:
i guess to a degree the point is that they are not toys. thinking of them as toys is why they seem pointless. they are often sold as being art, and thats kind of how you have to think of them.
its a pop art, a modern comic book art deal. its modern artists finding new ways of expression, outside the classic art system.
to some extent the idea can be considered to be complete bull, its a way of selling plastic figures that don't do anything to people with too much money.
but in saying that, while i can't understand the people that really spend 100s on the big/limited pieces, i do have a selection of vinyl pieces. really my brother is to blame, since its him that pointed me in that direction. and i don't have as many as he does, but i do have a good handful and i do keep my eye out for ones i think are cool. what do i do with them? they sit across a series of shelves that are other wise stacked with CDs.
just bought this one today, and will probably be tempted to buy one or two others in this series
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3109/2619433778_4de80c9a9a_m.jpg
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